Vigil of Easter - Where Life Begins

Vigil of Easter - Where Life Begins

We’ve spent  40 days of fasting, praying, and giving, and have reached the summit of life’s great harvest.  The gift of nurture the product of faith, now welcomes us each to life with God.

During the scourge in Egypt Moses had to deal with a promise he could barely enact until God sent him with a way to complete his plan.  The Israelites were not sure of this new manner of escape once they reached water, the Red Sea.  The faith of Moses, God’s chosen saving warrior, was just a shadow of those before him.  His predecessor, Joseph, son of Jacob, went through many trials without a script of final struggles.  He himself had another before him, whose task ahead was shown from God’s surprising announcement; “Look, God said to Abraham, look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.  Just so, shall your descendants be.”  (Gen. 15: 5).

Each of the three prophets had a particular part in this journey we are about to embark on.  The most prominent with Moses as the Passover was born.  The blood on the door posts and lintels above their doors indicated freedom from their captors and the blood of the Cross freedom from their sins.

When holding a candle during the procession in darkness, we are reminded that it is only the light of Christ that will lead us to that freedom.  What kept the Israelites safe as they escaped from Egypt?  The pillar of fire, light keeping danger from them as they fled.  

At the baptism of the candidates the water of immersion is a direct reminder of the Spirit at creation as a mighty wind swept over the waters (Gen. 1: 2), the Ark built by Noah destroying the world and the evil cleansed by God restoring the earth back to what God intended (Gen. 6: 5 ff), Israel escaping across the Red Sea as God opened the way as Jesus dying on the cross opened the only way for our redemption. 

The Paschal Mystery is not just the three day Triduum but the very elements that led us here.  Light which is Christ (from the beginning as “Let there be light, and from John “What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (Jn. 1: 4 - 5).  

Water as the cleansing of our sins through baptism makes each one an adopted child of God.  Human elements of nature become the spiritual elements of faith, that lead us to the Crucifixion of Jesus and the Resurrection of the Christ.  Jesus ascends to heaven after 40 days and promises our own resurrection.  This is the essence of the Paschal Mystery and the very pattern of our 40 days in Lent where life begins!

Ralph B. Hathaway, Life through Christ.